

% a a O o * % \ 

V -»Tr’ A f° «> 

>„ o- <y ,'-o, a. A w. v 

**'■ A A ^ 4°. '*■ 

vA 

• a VA * 

B,,* A A * 

4 A 



* cy J 

»v/ ^ ’ 


<A 



CT G ° * ° * 


<<s 



y. * * s V r ^ 

^ O A^- . t '*-» A> r 

*■ o * je/tT??? * G t * 

, -ov* • 



v 


Vo A A .‘ 

4“ ^ : 

P'A A^ ^ 






/ 

•- c\ A o **/•'«. 

o 
o 

<jr *^' X " Cj V /V 

s ^\a* *-t/''fS'* % VW*V A 

/ AAv X. .<? aA 



-p 

^ * 

jP-V 4 ?^ 

A. ^%>\v\\>> 3 : - ' y ^ + 

<A * bb* AK o 

<P\ 0 * 0 A ^ <£> 


a 0 ^ 

> ^ A 

a n o "V *„ 

* " 1 ' ■ ^ 0 . . ^ J ° " ° A 



A 


V 


A 


A 


* <e 

^o N 

* * * 4. c> 

Vi- *%vlWN$^ * bA _ 

^ % o * o 0 V~ °V * * ' 1 

V A> V * < * °* c\ 

"" ^ ♦ yf> 

<?*, 


o V 






&*• % a *; 

^ r vv 


« 

<0 * 

> » >, 

•’V V : ^A V A 

<<y **•*'* * v * ¥#o - 

^ V a * 




• A A 

A^V 


* V> ^ 

^ ,/ % \ 

AA... V 


o 


.*’ <v ^ '».v , 0 ' 

,A A c, 0> .‘°" 

o V . ISMSa - ^ o x 


A V ^, 

A v 




^° ^ ^ °^ 0 . 




e / *» 




O N 0 


% X A 




A 


0 V s s Vv. 


V 


'o , A >* <0 


^ s ^ ♦ 

- * ,/V 

$ -^o* • 


» * 


Q V o 0 ” G ♦ ’O 


/* 




4 O 

0 <L> ^ 

A.* * ^UWxKS^ s Na 

^ ^ >0L C 

^o,o° ^y 

* ■ ~ * 


o 


’ V r - Y ° ° 


<A 

; AA 

6 £ ^ 

* V ^ 




p, ^ ^ 

A 0 <? ° N o 

AT A * ’ A ^ v v 


^ ^ 


A 


0 


0 N G * ■ ^o 
, o 


p ♦ 




0 /•,>«. -j 

* A 5 

‘/ \. - 

V ft N o _ f ^ 


A 


A 


A A 

A A* 


A 


^0^ 


o V 


A 


.A . *- ' * * 

<r s 


•p 


.0 


a 


° <^ r 

« % ^ 


A 


, 9 V A*'a A V v » r, ° 

a ^ A 


C> S V 
,A A 


o 


> v b. 


iA 


A 


\ 


, \y ^ ^ ^ b 'V l. ' ^ ^ *% 

* Jy A 9 ; j «A A 'o.A ,G V 

0 V 0 0 N . a ^o ^ * L ' a 4 ^tp r 0^ 0 <A c ♦ 

^ ^ .i t _ /W-?_ -r r* (j ^r^cv ^ 


c 


U> 


l/> 


V>> 




" .4 


Pl i^rs 










































9 h O 


* * 7^7^ 

ff / -I <A 


V y . 
*a/ <* 



v ^> .0 


o N O 


\ y 


A 


«>«* 

A A 


•" A*bP ► P 

* "tr A 

: ^ v 


, VA 

A A 




o 9 A w A 


A « 

'>\ <A o 

o V 


A v .-jay/a 


o' 


CV A" Y-y 


.0 


A 

oA a 


^ V yiW* .0 

-*. ♦vssv. a - 


■V 


. L ' 9 * o 


* 

O *o » * 

*u 


A A- 

A A 


aa-ta y < 

' > V s . AA * 

% ^ *VQU%'. 

o q <x- „ v/Ar /,\\v) „ 

„ ^ ^ f/W» 


* 


.V 




O A * 


kxP* 


^o v^ ° V ^ 


Ay « 
■A q v 


4 CA 
>. <o? A 

♦ A o„ , 

A °-*. - 


* - - 0 ,0 


0 


© N O 


^ A : 


%#/L* 


v" * 5 Vjy o 


£> N o 


* 


\ 


A 


«><* : 
a a •. 


V o » « , 


- c% A . 

- A ^ * . . 

CA <=,'»• -* A v, 

(A .‘".A AV ..«•, A 

c° ,V^', ^ .A .\^A A 


• * 

•V v*--’ y 

<0 * v ‘°- a v * s 

'M: A A ; 


* ^ ** 


y„ a A. s s <G 


* 

' ^ V« 

<w O *o 

0^ * L ' ® -!■ U o 

(A - O 


O V 


* 4 O. 

V <X? *<' 

* N v 

" V S V A- , 

* "\r ' 




^0 






o N 0 


o \0 vN 

s ❖ sK * 
o o° ^ * * 

, . 0 A ,\ 


o N 0 


o * 


A 9 


V/ ; 

' A S ^ ° 

A ^ ° 

,ca o, 'orr’ 1 , . 

^ -**'"♦ y 'iL*% ^ 


^ * 


4 v 


A. 




0 M 0 


.-a , 

^o V s * ;»w 

^° •% *. 

,• n 0 4- 
.0 •A 

,0 .’*«- > 

m - . YV , 

Y <* 


* ^Tw . 

“ "^A rS 


^.•»* o 'o. * - A 

0^ . 1 ' *, A. Ac 

- : n> : 

o \0 v\ v 
• > » ^ * 


•A 


^0 


A » 


c^ 1 


te ' 

* ^ A 


A 




O N 0 


y o n a . *^a 

® - ^ 

° "Y. 

<* 'Py 4 

^0 

* 4 O. 

v -oA a 

A xxy o 

> *•*’• y .. a * 

-st, A / ' + 

%■<* \, r _ )T , . 

y ^ »TO^* ** y % 

^ t .. y •••** y ... y 

■ °o A .°jw% ^ 

♦ <&/{[//?Z> - <\ <c 


Y A o 

- A “. « _ 

• .g 1, ^ 'o * * * A <y ' *.« 

o^ A'*, ^o A .•!•. <>, 


A t> 



V * • < ’ • 

A v , *j 

•<■ A a^ *V* 

° A A • ' :_ 

,* y a °- > 

^ fr O ^ C 

V ^ 



A o' 



y o a &wr*f «y cv ^ 

y ;r.-, *> , v a 
a y • ^a\ . % y ; 

a G * ^wV/Pt, * 

C, A 

<y a. ° 

■» ^ V 0^ * 4 



9 IS 0 







A o 0 " 0 -v a 

A * _r^C\ ^ *r 


A % 




































Gamefeie Institution 
of Washington 

THE RAILROADS AND 
THE PEOPLE 


cAn Address By 

DOCTOR JOHN WESLEY HILL 


DELIVERED SEPTEMBER 7th, 1915, 

at MOORE’S THEATRE, 


SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, BEFORE THE NATIONAL 
CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN BANKERS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 



Published by The World’s Court League, Inc. 
Equitable Building 
New York City 



















• ■„ 








5 ^ 


\«l ' 3 

,\\ 6 






















THE RAILROADS AND THE PEOPLE 
Br 

Doctor John Wesley Hill 

William E. Knox, Controller, Bowery Savings Bank, 
New York City, President of the Savings Bank 
Section, Presiding. 


Chairman : Having just heard with pleasure Mr. William 
R. Sproule, President of the Southern Pacific R. R. Co., who 
has addressed us from the standpoint of the Railroads, I now 
take pleasure in introducing Dr. John Wesley Hill, President 
of the International Peace Forum, who will represent the 
People’s side of this question. 


I N ADDRESSING this convention of bankers I feel some¬ 
what like the owner of a little lumbering railroad in Michi¬ 
gan, who asked for an exchange of passes with a big rail¬ 
road. “My road,” he said, by way of explanation, “is not as long 
as yours, but it is just as wide.” And so I would say, while my 
financial interests are not as extended as yours, and my business 
experience is much more limited, yet as a patriotic citizen, my 
sympathetic interest in the cause you represent is as broad as 
yours. This is my plea of justification for appearing before you. 

The fact that I have personally less at stake in the great prob¬ 
lem of prosperity places me on a level of interest with the people, 



4 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


and leaves me free to declare the truth, as Pat announced 
upon the witness stand he would tell it, “without hope of pun¬ 
ishment or fear of reward.” 

I appear here this morning as attorney for the people, to voice 
their rights in relation to the railroads. What are these rights? 
They are two-fold. First, honest, economical, undiscriminating 
service upon the part of the railroads. Second, the firm, fair and 
intelligent regulation of the railroads by the Government This 
last condition is necessary to the execution of the first, for if the 
railroads are not intelligently and fairly regulated they will 
neither render efficient service, nor afford the people safe and 
profitable opportunity for the investment of their savings. 

The poor man may have but a few dollars in the savings bank 
or in railroad stock, but it is his entire accumulated capital, and 
it must not be jeopardized by dangerous agitation or destructive 
legislation. It is the product of his toil, the fruit of his frugality, 
the prophesy of a compounded return which spells the difference 
between the savings bank and the poor house. This initial de¬ 
posit or investment of the average man is the germ of a possi¬ 
bility which, if permitted to develop, will expand into financial 
efficiency and add another individual unit to the wealth-producing 
power of the nation. Thus the small investor of to-day becomes 
the capitalist of to-morrow. To ignore this inter-relationship of 
interest, to exalt one class of business above another, to encour¬ 
age farming and fetter banking, or to regard railroads as far 
removed from the interests of the people, possessing no rights the 
public should respect, is in its final analysis an assault upon the 
rights of the humblest toiler in the land. The blow aimed at the 
man higher up inevitably reacts upon the man lower down. Busi¬ 
ness disaster strikes all alike. Some may bear it better than 
others, but it is surely not the man of small means or small 
earning capacity who can better stand up under the blow at big 



THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


S 


business. He is the first to feel the crash and the last to recover 
from it. 

Now then, bearing in mind the rights of the people with 
respect to the railways, how have these rights been recognized 
and protected on the one hand by the railroads and on the other 
by the Government which regulates them? 

For a number of years the management of our railways has 
been under fire, and not without justification. Juggling, watering, 
rebating and plundering have subjected the railroads to suspicion 
on the part • of the people,—and to investigation, indictment, 
prosecution, conviction and penalization upon the part of the 
Government. Granting this, we should not forget, however, that 
the shippers who put all kinds of pressure upon the railroads 
to secure unfair concessions, and the government which forced 
the railroads to maintain cut-throat competition must bear their 
share of responsibility and culpability for the evil conditions 
permitted to develop in the past. That these evils have been 
largely eliminated no one acquainted with the facts will deny. 
Government regulation, coupled with the voluntary cooperation 
of the railroads, has accomplished wonders. From the extrava¬ 
gance, waste, discrimination and mismanagement of this wild 
period in railroading, the rairoads have been tamed into a strength 
and efficiency without a parallel in the world, and this in the 
face of the fact that they are paying the highest wages in the 
world. 

In Germany, where most of the railroads are owned by the 
Government, the average annual wage of a railway employe is. 
$404. In this country, where the lines are all owned by private 
capital, the average wage of a railway employe is $810, or over 
twice as much as in Germany. In spite of this enormous differ¬ 
ence in wages, the average freight rate per ton per mile in this; 
country is only 7.2 mills, while in Germany it is 13.7 mills. In 


6 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


other words, our railways pay twice as high wages as Germany 
and charge only half as high an average freight rate. We hear a 
great deal of German efficiency in general, and much of what we 
hear is true; but, in view of such figures as these, it is clear that 
our railways are very much more efficiently managed than theirs. 

Then regarding over-capitalization, it must be conceded that 
this is not true. It is well within the bounds of truth to say that 
the number of railways in this country which represent an invest¬ 
ment exceeding their capitalization, is substantially greater than 
the number whose capitalization exceeds the investment they 
represent. Our railways are capitalized for $64,000 a mile, those 
of Germany for $117,000, those of France for $149,000, those 
of the British Isles for $277,000. We find then no real ground 
for complaint regarding the financial management of most of the 
railroads. 

That the people themselves have taken this attitude in the 
past is indicated by the confidence they have shown in railway 
securities by investing in them. 

Now, the railroads are not, as is frequently charged, owned 
by a few men in Wall Street. 

I am not a statistician, but I have been looking at some 
figures that are public property, figures which are not old and 
discredited by recent developments, but brought down to date, 
and they tell a story which “he who runs may read.” 

These figures show that on the first of August, 1915, the total 
deposits in savings banks and savings departments of Commercial 
Bank and Trust Companies in the United States reached the 
enormous aggregate of eight and a half billion dollars. The 
number of banks is placed at 28,690 and the number of depositors 
at 24,189,489, an army mustered from the ranks of the common 
people, whose savings constitute a large proportion of the busi- 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


7 


ness capital of the nation. In addition to these deposits in savings 
institutions, there are 34,000,000 policy-holders in life insurance 
companies. It is this vast army of depositors in savings banks 
and investors in life insurance policies for whom I am speaking 
here to-day. They are the direct or indirect owners of the rail¬ 
roads. They hold a large proportion of railroad stocks and 
bonds. As to the direct ownership of stocks, there are available 
statistics which show how many persons held them on June 30, 
1914. The Bureau of Railway Economics recently compiled 
statistics furnished by the railways to the Interstate Commerce 
Commission as of that date. These statistics show that 1,287 
railway companies with 254,387 miles of line, have 622,284 
stockholders on record. The amount of stock owned by them is 
$8,685,764, 125, or an average of $13,958 per stockholder. There 
are two and one-half stockholders to every mile of railway and 
the average amount of dividends received by each of them annu¬ 
ally is $625. 

Talk about the railways being “owned by Wall Street.” They 
are our most democratically owned institutions. 

But the direct investment does not fell the entire story. There 
is an indirect ownership by the public which is equally, if not 
more, important than the direct. This indirect ownership comes 
through Savings Banks, Life Insurance and Trust Companies. 
When one of these institutions receives money and agrees to 
return it with interest or dividends or maturing endowments, it 
is required by law to secure the depositor by investing the funds 
in securities which the law approves as safe. 

In accordance with these requirements, the mutual and stock 
Savings banks and Life Insurance companies now hold nearly 
two and one-half billion dollars in railroad bonds. This vast 
sum belongs indirectly to the depositors. Outstanding railway 


8 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


securities of all kinds are estimated, in round numbers, at twenty- 
billion dollars, equal to the combined savings of the world. 

This almost incomprehensible aggregate of values is held 
very largely by “we, the people.” The securities were purchased 
in good faith by investors at home and abroad, and by the sav¬ 
ings banks and life insurance companies who hold them as security 
for the people’s money If their value is impaired, confidence is 
destroyed, savings are lost and untold suffering ensues. 

We have a right, therefore, on behalf of the people, to ex¬ 
amine some of the losses, direct and indirect, inflicted upon the 
people during the past few years. Some of these losses have 
resulted from the financial mismanagement of individual rail¬ 
ways, as in the cases of the Chicago & Alton, the New York, New 
Haven & Hartford, the St. Louis & San Francisco, and the Rock 
Island. 

The proper steps should be taken either by the passage of new 
laws or the stricter enforcement of those already existing, to stop 
such mismanagement and hold to personal accountability and 
punishment those responsible. 

But the losses of investors in our railways in recent years 
have not been confined to those who unfortunately have put their 
money into the securities of roads which have been mismanaged. 

There has been an enormous shrinkage in the value of railway 
securities generally. This shrinkage has been due to declines in 
net earnings, which must be accounted for on some other basis 
than that of inefficient management on the part of the railroads. 
In the state of New York alone the railroad bonds held by the 
Life Insurance companies have shrunk, in the course of a decade, 
a little more than $110,000,000 during which period the value of 
railroad bonds and stocks has depreciated from 10 to 20 per cent. 
Allowing for a shrinkage of only 10 per cent, from what is called 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


9 


the “peak year of 1906” on $20,000,000,000 of railroad securities, 
we are confronted by a depreciation of $2,000,000,000. 

The responsibility for this rests somewhere, and if not on the 
railroads where should it be placed ? It cannot be charged to the 
public, for public traffic and travel have greatly increased during 
the past decade. 

The explanataion of the decline in the net earnings of the 
railways is to be found in the fact that they have suffered from 
increases in expenses and ta^ces which their management have 
been powerless to prevent, while the regulating authorities have 
refused to permit the advances in rates necessary to offset them. 

Specific figures are here in order. Effective federal regulation 
of railways began in this country in 1906. In the eight years to 
1914 the average wage per employe on our railways increased 
from $611 to $810, or 33 per cent. The average taxes per mile 
increased from $336 to $568, or 69 per cent. With increases of 
33 per cent, in the average wages per employe and of 69 per 
cent, in taxes per mile, while traffic per mile increassed only 20 
per cent, you would naturally expect that the railways might 
become embarrassed if they were not granted some compensating 
advances in rates. But, as a matter of fact, in 1907 the passenger 
rate was reduced in most of the States from 3 to 2 cents, while 
there was also a decline during these eight years in the average 
freight rate. 

There could be but one effect from these increases in expenses 
and taxes and reductions in rates, viz.: depreciation. While in the 
eight years before 1906 the net operating income per mile of the 
railways increased $1,124 or 54 per cent., in the eight years after 
1906, it actually declined $339, or 11 per cent. This decrease of 
11 per cent, in the amount of net operating income with which to 
pay a return on the investment in the railways was accompanied 
by an increase of 20 per cent., or from $59,624 to $71,551 in their 


10 


THE WORLDS COURT LEAGUE 


investment in property per mile. In 1906 the average percentage 
of returns earned on the investment in the properties was 5.39 
per cent.; in 1914 this had shrunk to 3.99 per cent. Under such 
conditions, financial catastrophe was inevitable, as the Irishman 
exclaimed, when he saw the mighty flood of water falling at 
Niagara, “Faith and what‘s to prevent it!” 

Little wonder that we have harvested a large crop of railroad 
bankruptcies! There are now in the hands of receivers in this 
country no less than seventy-seven railways having a total mile¬ 
age of 37,937 miles and a total capitalization of $2,052,000,000. 
In other words, the mileage in the hands of receivers in this coun¬ 
try exceeds the total mileage in existence in any other country in 
the world except Russia. 

I hold no brief for the railroads, but, in behalf of the people, 
I may confidently demand the same justice for the railroads as 
for all legitimate industry. 

Fully one half of our hundred million population, directly or 
indirectly, own the railroads, the maintenance and operation of 
which is the very life blood of our industry, finance and social 
progress. 

If conditions are not right in this country for railroad pros¬ 
perity, or if there is anything in the attitude of the government 
which is prejudicial to this prosperity, the sooner we discover and 
rectify it the better it will be for the interests of the entire coun¬ 
try, for we should not forget that any injury inflicted on these 
highways of travel and commerce and economic solidarity must 
react on the people. If the railroads constitute the jugular vein 
of our national prosperity, that vein cannot be tapped without 
draining the financial blood of the people. Bleeding was once 
employed by medical science in the treatment of apoplexy and 
kindred disease. The patient was bled white in order to save his 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


II 


life. Well, if there is even a # modicum of virtue in such treat¬ 
ment, surely the people have suffered enough bleeding through 
depreciation of railroad securities to prevent for many years any¬ 
thing like swollen fortunes, capitalistic congestion or the 
slightest suspicion of a glut in their prosperity. 

It is unnecessary for me to speak of what the railroads have 
done for our mighty, continental empire. As a nation we are not 
much older than the railroad industry. When our fathers 
achieved independence, it was a problem with them how far our 
lines of settlement could extend toward the west, away from the 
Atlantic Coast line and the water highways of the great rivers. 
Even the luminous intellect of Daniel Webster could not pierce 
the illimitable distance to the Pacific Coast and imagine populous 
and prosperous States upon that slope of the continent. 

In a memorable speech in the United State Senate, he char¬ 
acterized the great Columbia River and Oregon territory em¬ 
bracing this great State of Washington as “not worth a boundary 
fight.” The interior of the continent was generally regarded as a 
mere desert, fit only for rattlesnakes and Indians. 

The railroads came and solved the problem. Step by step, as 
they developed, they carried the wave of civilization toward the 
setting sun. What do we not owe socially, industrially, and 
politically to the railroads ? Could we have maintained this great 
Union in its integrity without them? They have reduced 
the population of this vast continent into a closely related, thor¬ 
oughly compacted neighborhood. There are no distant places, 
not a spot large or small enough in which to hide a social, business 
or political secret. They have annihilated time and space and con¬ 
densed our coast lines into the opposite sides of a little narrow 
street. Consider the enormous land wealth they have developed. 
When the first crude railroads were built a few million dollars 
would have measured the value of our agricultural resources; 


12 


THE WORLDS COURT LEAGUE 


but in the year 1900 the census showed the value of our farm 
land, improvements and implements to be more than $17,000,000,- 
000 and by the next census they had exceeded thirty billion. The 
railroads found the wealth of the United States estimated at less 
than $3,000,000,000; it is now conservatively estimated at $150,- 
000,000,000. We of this generation, have seen the railroads push¬ 
ing their way through wild areas of uninhabitable prairie land. 
Their builders were practical statesmen of a higher order. At 
their own risk they have discounted the possibilities of the future 
and provided a highway over which the settler could come in and 
over which he could ship his products back to the growing cities 
of the East and to Europe, thus enabling the fruit growers of 
California to market their crops on the Atlantic seaboard; the 
wool growers of the West and the cotton growers of the South 
to market their products, and indeed, enabling every producer 
throughout the land to market his products at his own door and 
thus become a competitive factor in the commerce of the world. 

The magician of the Oriental tale who caused the palace to rise 
in a single night was but as an ant, rearing a tiny hill in the sand, 
compared to the wonder-working instrumentality which has 
evoked cities and communities from a barren wilderness, bound 
together into one social organism the people separated by thous¬ 
ands of miles, providing for them a market and an outlet for 
their unconsumed surplus, and bearing the ever-increasing bur¬ 
den of a nation’s commerce at an average expense to the con¬ 
sumer of .729 of a cent per ton per mile, for that is the average 
charge on all the freight carried by the railroads in the United 
States. 

It must not be forgotten that all this service has been rendered 
by the railroads under the system of private ownership. 

In some of the older communities of Europe already occupied 
by dense populations the experiment of government ownership 


O' 


I 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


13 


has been tried., but with results far short in rapidity of develop¬ 
ment, efficiency of management, perfection of facilities and cheap¬ 
ness of freight and passenger rates in comparison with the accom¬ 
plishment of our privately-owned lines of transportation. 

The people are not clamoring for government ownership. 
They know what confiscation means to their interests. Whether 
the proposition be modified by compensation, based on physical 
valuation or whether out-and-out expropriation, both assail the 
institution of private property and must result in irreparable loss, 
not only to the railroads but to every stock and bond holder. The 
people prefer private to public ownership, knowing full well that 
the former encourages individual enterprise and efficiency while 
the latter not only invades the fundamental rights of the citizen, 
but reduces him to a factotum in a deadening bureaucracy. 

Granted the railroads have made serious mistakes, departing 
in some instances far from the pathway of fair dealing and busi¬ 
ness probity. This does not justify their confiscation or absorp¬ 
tion by the State. The entire system of railroading should not 
be assailed on account of exceptional wrongs. These irregulari¬ 
ties have been righted by remedial legislation. The ploughshare 
of reform has turned a deep furrow; reorganizations have been 
effected, incompetent and dishonest managers and manipulators 
have been eliminated, interlocking directorates ended, and a new 
era has been inaugurated. The government has done its part in 
this work of reconstruction. Much of its legislation has been 
actuated by a sincere desire to correct abuses. Great good has 
been accomplished. No inflexible rule of procedure can be estab¬ 
lished. The railroads cannot grow in strait jackets. New condi¬ 
tions, new regulations, but there should be some definite co¬ 
ordinating policy on the part of the government in relation to the 
railroads in order to guarantee the restoration of their prosperity. 

The govenment should not make the fashion plate of the 


14 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


French milliner its model for railroad regulation. That artistic 
genius goes into seclusion at the close of each season, and by some 
system of integral calculus, or special spectrum analysis discovers 
that the plume which pointed toward the horizon in the Spring 
should point toward the zenith in the Summer, and as a result 
our American ladies are paying, every season, hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of dollars for the attitude of a feather. 

Railroads should no 4 : be regulated by political fashion plates. 
Millions cannot be expended in improvements upon the uncer¬ 
tainty of the attitude of a government commission. Workingmen 
should not be given employment under one ruling and turned out 
into the streets under another. The employee has not as many 
lives as a cat; he has but one life, and all he asks is an opportunity 
to provide for himself and those dependent upon him by steady 
employment. Permanency is the condition demanded by the 
employer and the employe. Anything short of that results in 
confusion and disaster. Prosperity cannot be built upon the 
caprice of the moment. Factories cannot be successfully opera¬ 
ted upon a four years’ basis. Business cannot thrive in the dark. 
Railroads have a right to know what to expect. Blind alleys 
make poor terminals for trans-continental systems. They must 
have an open field, a fair chance and a square deal. That is the 
meaning of democracy, whether applied to people or industries— 
equal opportunity for all. And if this nation is to continue as the 
embodiment of representative democracy we must avoid any¬ 
thing and everything savoring of despotism, draw a line of demar¬ 
cation between regulation and strangulation, between government 
by commission and government by the people, and develop our 
national resources and genius, our industries and institutions 
through that personal initiative and sense of justice and love of 
liberty which is as far removed from socialism upon the one hand 
as it is from anarchy on the other. 

We are just emerging from a period which has been charac- 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


15 


terized by an excess of legislation. Agitators and demagogues 
have precipitated an avalanche of legislative “cure-alls” guaran¬ 
teed to bring the millennium. Thirty-two States have enacted 
drastic business regulations against outside corporations. In 1913 . 
more than two thousand laws were passed in Congress, and more 
than 60,000 in state legislatures, while in the sixty-third Congress 
30,000 bills were considered, together with eighty amendments to 
the Constitution of the United States, the subject matter running 
from the election of Supreme Court justices to a proposal to 
authorize the government, whenever it has reason to suspect that 
fortunes have been improperly obtained to bring an action for 
recovery. Let us hope that we are near the end of this legislative 
craze. Surely we have had sufficient opportunity to discover its 
inefficiency. The need of the hour, both in relation to the rail¬ 
roads and alb business, is encouragement. Bills of lading are bet¬ 
ter indicators of prosperity than Bills of Legislation. The time 
is at hand for an era of construction. We are hearing much 
about progress nowadays. Mere motion is not progress. The 
little fellow on his hobby-horse in the nursery imagines that he 
is making a two ten record, when he is only wearing out the car¬ 
pet. That is not progress—it is friction. Neither is there real 
progress in “exceeding the speed limit.” An old Hebrew prophet 
exclaimed, “He that believeth shall not make haste.” “Haste 
makes waste.” Better to go slow and arrive on schedule time 
than to jump the track! Socialism is joy riding in the dark. 
Progress is heading in the right direction. You would not 
call yonder avalanche roarng down the side of a mountain, pro¬ 
gressing, because it bears with it a signboard labeled, “Excelsior.” 
Progress means growth and production. Destruction is not prog¬ 
ress. An old fellow went to a surgeon in New York the other 
day, for the diagnosis of a large growth on the side of his head. 
The doctor examined it carefully and said, “It is a wen. It must 
be removed immediately. Your life is in danger.” The patient 


i6 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


stretched out on the table and said, “I am ready, hurry up.” The 
surgeon did hurry—that was his mistake—and becoming con¬ 
fused in the operation, cut off the old fellow’s head, leaving the 
wen on. That is Socialism. Any maniac can thrust a crowbar 
into a piece of complicated machinery; any fool can scatter fire¬ 
brands; any fanatic can wage a warfare against law and order 
and constitutional authority; but that is not getting anywhere. 
You would not burn down a building in order to disperse the rats. 
You would not sink yonder ocean steamer in order to remove the 
harnacles. Put her in the dry dock for scraping and repairs, and 
then push her back into the sea where she belongs. Keep the 
ship in the sea and the sea out of the ship and you have naviga¬ 
tion and commerce. 

It is high time to call a halt upon the headstrong and headlong 
carriage of professional progress, much of which is thoroughly 
reactionary. The reactionary would worship the devil on account 
of his antiquity. The revolutionary wearies of God Almighty 
because He is “From everlasting to everlasting.” Between these 
extremes we find real Progress, slow, tedious, sure-footed and 
determined, a Progress rooted and grounded in the “arduous 
greatness of things achieved,” which does not break with the 
precedents of the past, but “proves all things, and holds fast to 
that which is good.” And my countrymen, the time is ripe for 
just this order of Progress. The iconoclast has done his work. 
The levelers have succeeded. The hour for the builder has ar¬ 
rived. The opportunity for real statesmanship is at the door. 
The people are awaiting the call of exalted leadership. They 
realize the necessity for a change of front in the attitude of the 
government toward business activity and prosperity. Business 
must be given a chance. It should not be kept on the witness- 
stand indefinitely. Government by Commission is headed toward 
tyranny. It is only a matter of time when it will bring up there. 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


1 7 


Practically all of the forty-eight States of the Union have Com¬ 
missions in some form or another for the regulation of railroads,,, 
while upon the other hand, the Interstate Commerce Commission 
of the Federal Governent has well nigh unlimited power to fix 
rates. Between the State and National Commissions there are 
wide conflicting and confusing differences. These differences, 
are so conflicting that the railroads are frequently in the position 
of the two travelers on the western plains in the early days. 
They saw a buffalo bull charging upon them and fled for safety, 
one of them springing into a tree and the other barely dodging 
into a cave as the infuriated beast went roaring by. Then the 
man in the cave jumped out and the bull rushed back, the man 
jumped in, and as the bull passed by the man jumped out; the bull 
came back and the man jumped in, and the bull, rushed by and the 
man jumped out; whereupon the man in the tree shouted, “You 
infernal fool, you, while you are in there why don’t you stay 
there!” to which the man below answered, “What the thunder do 
you know about this cave? There is a bear in here!” 

Between the bull and the bear of State and Federal regula¬ 
tion, there is naught for the railroads but to jump in and out, 
backward and forward, in a vain attempt to escape the penalties- 
of conflicting tribunals. It is hardly surprising in view of such 
confusion, that railroad managers are having difficulty in finan¬ 
cing and operating their lines. It is no wonder that the credit of 
these roads is sometimes impaired, and that they are hard pressed 
to pay their employes the wages they demand. Any business 
man can appreciate the gravity and difficulty of a situation com¬ 
pelling him to pay a rising scale of wages, taxes and other expen¬ 
ses, with decreasing earnings and no power of his own to impose 
a fairly increased charge for his’goods or services. 

To an outsider, a layman if you please, viewing the situation 
from the standpoint of common sense, it would seem that unless 


i8 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


the strangle-hold of so-called regulation is withdrawn from the 
railroads, giving them a chance for respiration and recuperation 
there can be but one outcome, viz.: the government ownership of 
railroads. In other words, if the government will not permit the 
railroads to make fair profits, enough to protect their investors 
and to meet their expenses, the only alternative is for the govern¬ 
ment to take them over and operate them. This would be the last 
step this side of State Socialism. It would inevitably be followed 
by State ownership of the land, and with the fundamental instru¬ 
mentalities of production and transportation in the hands of the 
government, individualism would cease to be a factor in the 
development of our civilization. 

There has arisen, of late years, a class of pseudo-political 
economists whose trend of thought is all in the direction of the 
idea that the government must support the people. Paternalism 
may be a captivating dream to the indigent and improvident, but 
it is abhorrent to men of industry, enterprise and self-reliance. 
The government has nothing with which to support the people 
save what it takes from them in the form of taxes. It is the 
people who support the government and provide it with the funds 
necessary to administration. But in order to pay their taxes the 
people must have control of their own earnings and property. 
The industry and business of the country is the creation of indi¬ 
vidual effort. Our national progress has been through the evolu¬ 
tion of the individual and the combined energy and intelligence 
of the people, aided by legislation protecting and conserving indi¬ 
vidual rights. The citizen thus protected in his rights of initiative 
property, investment, and enterprise can not only provide for him¬ 
self, but furnish ample funds with which to support and maintain 
the government. But if the government is to expend the money 
which he pays in taxes in restricting his ability to make money, 
nothing remains but the confiscation of his property, and his en- 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


19 


slavement as the servant of the State instead of his present status 
as an independent producer. 

The American people are confronting the greatest industrial, 
commercial, and political era in their history. We will require 
the very highest industrial efficiency in order to seize and utilize 
great opportunities which existing conditions are opening before 
us, and our industrial efficiency and prosperity will depend very 
largely upon the efficiency and prosperity of our transportation 
system. The railways are the arteries of our commerce, and you 
can just as well expect a man with hardening of the arteries to 
maintain his health, energy, and activity as to expect a Nation 
with crippled and decadent railways to maintain and increase 
its industrial efficiency. Therefore, one of the first steps which 
should be taken to increase our National efficiency is to so read¬ 
just the rates and earnings of our railways as to enable them 
adequately to improve and expand their facilities. I do not say 
this in behalf of the railways, I say it on behalf of the people. 
The interests of the railroad and the people are identical. When 
the railroads prosper the people prosper. When the railroads 
suffer the people must pay the toll. It is their funeral. In the 
interest of the people the railroads should be subjected to wise 
and fair regulation and control; but also in the interest of the 
people they should be afforded the opportunity and means with 
which to well and adequately serve the people. 

We are at the parting of the ways. The old world is wallow¬ 
ing in the waste and welter and barbarism of war. What the out¬ 
come will be it is not for us to prophesy. Neutrality is the word 
for pur country. We are far removed from the conflict, geo¬ 
graphically, politically, and ethically. Some lessons, however, are 
striking and apparent. Armed peace is an anomaly. Military bud¬ 
gets are not insurance policies but explosives. Thirty years ago 
these warring nations began to invest in armaments which were 
labeled, “Peace Insurance,” and during this period they ha,ve paid 


20 THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 

out hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars; their total in¬ 
debtedness at the present time being forty-five billions of dollars- 
And now at a time when they need insurance they discover that 
their policies are worthless, indeed, that they are not insured at 
all. They are in the condition of the Jew broker, who one 
day, when business was a little slack, in toying with a silver 
dollar accidentally swallowed it, when throwing up his hands in 
despair, he exclaimed, “Mein Gott, mein Gott, I’m a dollar in 
and a dollar out, and I can’t balance my books!” These fighting 
nations are billions in and billions out. In the meantime we 
know, and the whole civilized world knows, the wisdom of the 
words of Charles Sumner when he declared, “Armaments beget 
suspicion, suspicion begets fear, fear begets murder.”' 

So long as militarism is the basis of civilization, so long as 
civilization must be propped up with bayonets, it is necessary for 
our Nation to furnish its quota of bayonets. Self-preservation is 
the first law of Nature. The nation which cannot or dare not, or 
will not, defend itself is unworthy the name of Nation. But my 
friends, at such a time as this it is for us to point the way toward 
universal peace. Our citizenship is heterogeneous. The ends of 
the earth meet here. It requires all the blood of the world to con¬ 
stitute one real, typical American citizen, whose citizenship is 
unique and independent, not hyphenated, but condensed into one 
magnetic word which spells democracy—Americanism. This is 
our citizenship, and he who would boast of any other, who would 
change or modify it, is unworthy the protection of that flag which 
glorifies our history, symbolizes our liberty, proclaims our mis¬ 
sion and brings to pass the dreams and hopes and prophecies of 
all the past! 

Toiling beneath this solemn standard of national pride and 
honor, it is for us to hold aloft the scales of justice, fit symbol of 
equity and honor and fair dealing among the nations of the 


p n 8. "« 


THE WORLD’S COURT LEAGUE 


21 


earth; to reassert the authority of reason as against the bloody 
arbitrament of the sword; to insist that there is a legal remedy 
for every wrong; that war is an assault on law and order, a 
ghastly conspiracy against civilization and a lapse into the starless 
night of barbarism. 

Standing upon such a basis of righteousness, maintaining 
peace at home and amity with all the nations of mankind; pos¬ 
sessed of the greatest physical basis ‘for an enduring Empire the 
world has ever known; orphaned of the solemn instinct of antiq¬ 
uity, yet compensated in area for all that we lack in age; en¬ 
vironed with mountains of silver and gold; boundless in resource, 
inimitable in energy and enterprise, a continental empire, threaded 
with a thousand lines of trade and commerce; a land of Edens 
and El Doradoes; beautiful with lakes like inland seas, and irri¬ 
gated with rivers like rolling lakes; with a population more intelli¬ 
gent, patriotic, peaceful, prosperous, and contented than can be 
found anywhere else on this footstool of Almighty God, it is for 
us to illustrate the power and possibilities of American democracy; 
to demonstrate the stability of popular government; to show how 
labor and capital can live together, each recognizing the necessity 
of the other and both toiling for the common good, and in this 
atmosphere of industrial tranquility to develop that industrial 
independence, commercial supremacy and political stability which 
shall give to us an enduring place among the wondering nations 
of mankind! 






















. 









































































































































» « 


» * 


* /1 <y 


o A * 0 

5 '* "V. .4? A A ■> A t 

° ^ 4 < v * 

AA " * - 

■/ ^ ^ 




o • A 


A 


c °"°« "<P 

AV » V* 

<n * <^S\\\^ 

o V* ° 




c\ AAAV o 

°<£* * ° w 0 A 0 

s **'- <A , 0 ' * 

'P. Aty *■ 

vP <3 * 




1 * O 


V~--> V®V \- 
•- V A.V&S-. V S..£tl:% 


■^•o 4 

* ' 

^ A 

* s 

«0 

vP 





a^A - 
/ ^ ^ - 

“ A* <* *'"'•* A° 

& C 0 " ° * <K .0 . >•' • * c> 

* <-4SN\ <* *V 0 ^ ~ sy>7^ + O 



° v\ v * 

° v 5 ^ © 

.* 4? % °ygw*' * 

• V o, '• . - * A 

*^V a\ 





* 7\ 

* A. A 


0 


\0 v\ 

* Miuw * * A 

O A * 0 A * 

°*. *»■•’ A V *»■'•■ ^ 

S ‘*A c\ AT A‘°- ^ v % 

^ »MA P 0 ^ ^ * 

vj' v • t ®r#A ° ^ v 


o 





A** 


\0 vV 

\ V' ^ tf- 

* o ”/ 

■♦ V . 4 ? , • A *. > 

A A <■ AW/k' 

•^v 'M&y/A, v* 



1*0 


0 V*> — jp -y - 

^ A «• '* A ^ 

-<A i. ‘ A/yl/Jf + K v 

•' ’ A> 

^ A V *l'Aj+ ^ 

A A' * 

° cA - 

A o WM % A A 

-> <A A • 4 

* * $ .0 o 'o „ , - A <\ * 

,0^ t .^*. *0, A .iV. A 




'^> ^ ^ n o 0 , 

* a > A * ‘ 

* ^ 4> ., , 

- -j> s 10 A\ 



1*0 



4 

■a/ ^ 

^ <A o' 

^ ff ' 1 * Ap %. A , o 

, A v % A cv 


A 


o 


S A 


2 

C^ ’u% ° 

.* ^,v "A ° 

* Ar o 



A 


A r$ 



'A V> 


A 



c 


0 , • 1 '_" ^ o 


^ _ 0 N G 










































V, * °" 0 0 




* ^ * - 


f u 

c' *<y * 

° ^r, C$> ^4 

° ^ <? 


* v> ^ 

* v ^ 

♦ k<> & A <L V r£> ^ ^ „ 

v <v 'o**’ 4 <G V */?**• A 

\ r.° .^'*, °, y • 


° ° 
* V A ° 


\p vV) 

> £ ^ *> 
Zs(/is -y j v 

* * t i * ^0 ^ * 




"-. ° w ♦ 

* o > » 

\0 ^ * 

. o ^ ^ % 

aP y v p ' c> <<y y \> . 

* AT * rCC\S^ A° ^r% ^ » A- a V 

\r*V 'iwi! Sv 


» r 

S 


* cp 
4 V 

- ,<r ■ 


* <y ** 


> r S vf* 

:* <& %. -x 


.❖ 






•w 


* / 1 


° ^5 

% -- .TAy 

' \ ^ V tf « /s 


V/ 

A 

S^'V 


VJ ^ ° 

<*G ^ .* ^^Kunn^y o , V-y. ;ms * C S ^ 

4p ^ * aP ’Av o H/ -^Cat ■* <£,' • 

<?- V ?U ^ ^ >) * -oA Ai- ^ 

> <*, *<vl** A <y >.A "- 

° " ° - C5 A ^ • L ' a ^ 

*. -»b^ :£r^*‘ A-o^ 

o ^ °« 

K 


A .YV 
vA 


A‘‘- T A°° 

A A\‘ 


A 








• ° 


c 


A 




«> \y^ i~k 

. O > 




0 


o .v a. *^;>' f o° \/'..'^»* 






A-\ xX 


o. , 0 ’ **V_' A 


\ 


V 


A 


</% 

4 A^- 

<A '«>•** ,G 

• c ^ .o v c °: °. ^o 

♦ W^, ’ A, G ,-AAv.,a o 

’- A. o^ : 


A*v aP - v 
° A 

° A V » 

• ^ V A * 

* V A 


"A ^ » „ S 


\ 


G 


<", * o » h 



0 



A 

\ ^b > 




- c S vP 

* ^ A- ■••^ 

* ,G y \r> 

.V „ « „ ^ 



^ A 


- r S 

^ V rU + ^*40/V&* * 

jy % +<S** a 

0 ° * ° + ^ o •* ^ .. t t & 




• a «r ^ 0^ 

* r> ^ ^ VvN^ ^ 

* — 5 *b 

®«° ,<y 

A aVL a -v ^ V p ’ * °- c> 

•v & ,'A\%i/h° A' 

: W 41i! 

^ A S ^ 

/ <£ ^ 

A. y \ A A ' 

’ . G ° A 

. 'O ^ 




*0 «- 

v <&■ “* 

,o' V*--v 

t s ’ * r \> K > 

^ .-v- 'y V ^ 

'■ % a ' 


r S ^ / 

.* y A v% 



























